30 MAINE STATE COLLEGE 



I. On the Immeuiatk Influence ok Pollkn on the Mother 



Plant. 



Eveu before the sexual theory regarding plant reproduction was 

 commonly accepted, the question of the immediate effect of pollen 

 on the form and character of the female parent received the atten- 

 tion of careful observers. Bradley early gave directions for per- 

 forming the operation of crossing and Avrote : "By this knowledge 

 we may altar the property and taste of any fruit by impregnating 

 the one with the farina of another of the same class ; as, for 

 example, a Codliu with a Pearmain, which will occasion the Codlin 

 so impregnated to last a longer time than usual and be of a 

 sharper taste ; if winter fruit be fecundated with dust of the sum- 

 mer kinds, they will decay before their usual time."* 



In 1745 Benjamin Cook, in a paper before the Royal Philosophi- 

 cal Societ3',t cited the appearance of russet apples on trees 

 ordinarily producing smooth fruit, and the reverse, as examples of 

 the effect of pollen. Other cases have been frequently noted as 

 proofs of the existence of the same phenomenon.! Even at this 

 early date, however, careful experiments undertaken by Thomas 

 Andrew Knight and others, tended to show that the apparent effects 

 might be due to bud variations, or other causes aside from the 

 action of pollen. Knight at this time wrote: "I have in some 

 hundred instances introduced the pollen of one variety of the plum, 

 the pear, the apple, the cherry, the peach, the melon and other 

 fruits into the blossoms of very different and opposite habits, and 

 I have never, (although I have most closely attended to the 

 results) found in any one instance the form, colour, size or 

 flavour of the fruit belonging to such blossoms in any degree 

 whatever changed or affected. "§ 



In 1865 Thomas Meehan opened discussion of the subject in the 

 columns of the Gardener's Monthly, remarking : "For ourselves, 

 without being satisfied that there is any material change in the 

 quality of the fruit, we cannot deny there is some ; and there may 

 be much more than we at present imagine. At any rate, we think 

 it may be taken for granted that melons grown near squashes often 

 have a suspicious squash}' flavour, that gives some ground for 

 the popular theory of mixing." 1| The suggestion is further made 



* Bradley, New Improvements in Planting and Gardening, 7th ed. (1739), p. IS- 



t Philosophical Trans. 1745. 



i Trans. Lond. Hort. Soc, V, 65. 



§ Trans. London Hort. Soc, V, 67. 



II Gard. Month., VII, 305. 



